Flights disrupted after torpedoes found on beach
FLIGHTS at Bristol Airport were disrupted after two unexploded torpedoes were discovered stuck in the mud on the coast near Weston-super-Mare.
An eagle-eyed member of the public alerted the town’s coastguard after spotting the World War Two explosives in Middle Hope Bay near Sand Point on Saturday morning.
The passer-by took pictures of the torpedoes and forwarded them to the coastguard which quickly alerted the Naval Bomb Disposal Team in Plymouth.
Experts immediately confirmed the items were torpedoes and the coastguard and bomb disposal teams were sent to the scene.
With the tide on the turn, a decision was made to attach a marker buoy to the torpedoes and return at low water on Sunday afternoon.
A 1.5 km exclusion zone - on the ground and into the air - was put into force by the bomb disposal team to ensure no one went near the site of the torpedoes.
Bristol Airport was later thanked by the coastguard after the operation caused ‘air traffic disruption.’
It said it believed flights were disrupted on Sunday between 4.15pm and 5pm.
Coastguard teams returned to the site in the early hours of Sunday at low water to ensure no members of the public went near the torpedoes until they were recovered by the tide.
One of the torpedoes had corroded to just the tail end whereas the other was fully intact and buried in the mud.
A controlled explosion of the wartime devices was carried out at just before 5pm.
The level of explosion revealed that the torpedoes were not live and instead were ‘test’ torpedoes.
A spokesman for Weston-superMare Coastguard Rescue Team said: “Once we were happy the area was clear and the water had receded enough, we assisted the Navy in the transport of their equipment and sand bags, close to the torpedoes location.”
The spokesman added: “The bang wasn’t as loud as expected due to it being a ‘test’ torpedo and was full of sand or concrete, not something anyone could have known.”
It is not known how many flights were disrupted as a result of the incident.
Local farmers working within the exclusion zone were also asked to stop work.
Crews then cleaned up the site and the bomb disposal team returned to Plymouth.
The spokesman added: “We would like to thank all involved, the farmers who were busy harvesting, Bristol Airport for air traffic disruption and the public for their understanding on what was a lovely day for a walk on the headland.”
Anyone who spots something unusual or who sees anyone in trouble on the coast should call 999 and ask for the coastguard.
During the Second World War, the importance of the sea lanes around the UK meant that they were regularly patrolled by German submarines and surface ships that fired torpedoes. There are no records of the total numbers of these that were fired and torpedoes were also occasionally dropped from aircraft attacking shipping.
Torpedoes were not always very reliable and those that missed their targets would have sunk to the seabed with their warheads still live once they had run out of power.
British submarines and vessels also experimented with torpedoes in UK coastal waters throughout both World Wars.